Messages - ryanjm

I like when unemployed lawyers spend all day writing about how being a lawyer sucks/the profession is dying/law school was a scam. It's like, @#!*, I'm in law school now, don't make me depressed about my job prospects!

I think "changed name" and earlcat are on the money here. My first instinct was using changed name's reasoning, and it would lead you to the correct answer. Earlcat's explanation is even more precise though imo and the wording of what he said is very likely exactly what the lsat would use as the correct answer.

I think what I may do is just end up taking the exam sooner rather than later. Perhaps in the fall prior to the admission cycle. Right now I have a pretty strong desire to study, and I'd like to use that momentum.

That's a good idea. If you've got the itch to study, might as well start now, go full steam ahead, and see how you do on full-length practice exams after you've studied. After you've done like 15-20, and you're happy with your score, take the real thing. If not, keep studying. But like some have already said, either start and do it now, or wait till around 4 months before you plan to take it. Stringing out your study over 2 years would be bad I think.

Lol at this thread. Pretty much sums up my thoughts of law school. I'm done w/it and passed the bar, but your friends are correct in that what you learn in class doesn't really prepare you much for being a lawyer. Casebooks are almost worthless for learning the law after you've learned how to read a case. When it comes time to study for the bar, you're not even cracking open a casebook. It's all supplemental material and straight memorization, which is honestly what I think would have worked best in law school too.

I wish I had something positive to add, but I think the practice of law generally sucks and I'm not working in that field. I feel your pain.

Yeah, it's better to wait and do well on the test when you're ready than to take it when you're not. But based on your past experience with the test (3rd time registered w/no score), and the number of prep courses and materials you've looked at already, I guess most people here are just wondering if you'll _ever_ be ready. As in, if you can't score 165 consistently on practice exams, does that mean you'll never be ready? It's just strange to hear the amount of prep you've done, and yet you feel you're still not ready. GL in February regardless, just don't beat yourself up too badly if 165 just isn't going to happen no matter what you do.

What are you scoring? I agree with your teacher that there are skills that can be learned to boost your score, but your overall score does correlate with intelligence as well. I don't know any stupid people that got a high score by learning skills.

If you've taken multiple classes and studied for months and months, and you're still scoring low, it might not be the skills that are lacking, but simply the ability to process information quickly, which is one measure of intelligence. I'm not at all implying you are stupid, but are you trying to get a 170+ or something? Not everyone can get a 170+, no matter how much they study, because it does take a measure of pure intelligence and ability to process info really quickly.

I think part of your post is missing. He didn't study at all and scored what?

I'm going to go ahead and say what almost everyone here will tell you: NOT studying for this test would be a huge mistake. Astronomically huge. Even someone with genius level intellect should take a minimum of 5 previous LSAT tests, and if you're scoring 180 on all of them, fine, no more studying needed. But for everyone else, studying for a couple of months is generally going to result in a large increase to your score.

The first thing I'd do is go ahead and take one of the previous years lsat tests. If you are scoring where you want to be, maybe you don't need to study much. But let's say you score something like 155, which is very normal. You could raise your score by 10+ points simply by learning the tricks to the test that the Powerscore books will teach you.